CESI calls for comprehensive EU initiative on learning mobility for all

At the hearing, which saw the participation of representatives from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, CESI’s Spokesperson for VET Stefan Nowatschin and CESI Youth Representative Matthäus Fandrejewski stressed:

• Learning mobility schemes should provide incentivising opportunities for all students, teachers and workers. While labour mobility is already relatively high for students in higher education, it could still be higher, and it is very low among VET apprentices and workers and among teachers in all levels of the education systems. The European Commission’s initiative should therefore be encompassing and further facilitate learning mobility for all. However a special emphasis should be given in those areas where pick-ups are particularly low (teachers, VET).
• Adequate financial support is a key factor determining the pick-up of mobility opportunities. Even in areas where learning mobility is relatively high, such as in higher education, financial support under Erasmus+ is insufficient to cover stays abroad. Living expenses usually far exceed grants. If the EU wishes to step up participation in (any) learning mobility schemes, financial support needs to be stepped up too. This is particularly true if the EU wants to increase learning mobility pick-up by more disadvantaged and poorer people without financial resources for stays abroad.
• Guidance for learning mobility schemes is vital. Many teachers and educational institutions need to be better aware and informed about labour mobility schemes. The EU should invest more in capacity-building, information dissemination and to this end improved and more systematic cooperation with educational institutions and public administrations is central. Especially in the area of VET learning mobility, centralised support offices which inform and advise about all relevant financial, employment and social security-related issues related to available mobility schemes would be especially important for SMEs and their staff that wish to engage but are unsure how to go about it. These support offices could also act as matching agencies to connect SMEs across countries for mobility schemes. Coordination and communication frameworks for participating actors/companies/educational institutions should be improved.
• Administrative procedures, applications and the coordination of existing labour mobility schemes is still complex and lengthy. Simplified and faster procedures would facilitate a better pick-up of mobility schemes.
• A sought flat-rate move towards longer mobility schemes (6 months) does not suit all target groups. While this length is ideal for university students because it matches an academic semester, stays abroad of 4-6 weeks are ideal for the professional VET sector.
• More extra recognition for participation in VET mobility schemes could incentivise more persons to engage in it. Various options for this are possible and in some places exist already, ranging from top-up grade in transcripts to a consideration in procedures related to promotions or post-apprenticeship take-over.
• A strengthened involvement and including of trainers and teachers in VET programmes would be desirable. In vocational training which is realised in cooperation by vocational schools and companies, tandem mobility of company training staff (trainers) with vocational school training staff (VET teachers) should be promoted. This possibility exists already since 2017 as part of the German mobility programme “AusbildungWeltweit. Together, the German vocational training partners visit the VET student/worker in their foreign internship/training company. The objective is not least also to exchange ideas among companies and vocational school training staff transnationally in the context of an learning cooperation between schools and companies across borders.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “We appreciated very much the European Commission’s inclusiveness to hear all European social partners on this very important matter as part of dedicated hearings. No matter their European affiliation, all concerned social partners deserve their say and should be heard. I am glad that the European Commission is living this principle and has sought the widest range of feedback possible for its forthcoming work on improved learning mobility.”